The End of Faith: Religion, Terror and the Future of Reason
Review by Gary Hunt
The End of Faith
by Sam Harris
W.W. Norton & Co.
$13.95
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A book that dares take on organized religion of any sort is bound to be inflammatory and controversial and “The End of Faith” is certainly one of those books. Sam Harris, who is a doctoral candidate in neuroscience at UCLA, has taken on the role of Socratic gadfly and boldly proclaims what polite society is not comfortable hearing.
He attacks faith in the sense that it is based on outdated material; sacred texts or teachings that date back from the prehistoric to the medieval and as such are increasingly out of touch with reason. He ridicules religious extremists who believe and act upon the literal interpretation of God’s word as it is represented in the Bible or the Koran, not leaving out any of the other major religions, but his real target turns out to be the liberal majority who practice religious tolerance.
Our ingrained belief in religious toleration has made it taboo to criticize an individual or a group of people because of their religious beliefs. The problem is that some religious beliefs are inherently dangerous and if we look the other way we’re committing the sin of appeasement. If a ‘true believer’ sets out on a suicide bombing mission against the heretics convinced that his valor will earn him a seat in paradise surrounded by his personal harem of 72 virgins (Harris’s example) should we not disabuse him of his particular faith? Islam is definitely singled out here as one of the most destructive belief systems operating on us at present, but Christianity is culpable as well. An instructive example is the billion or so dollars in humanitarian aid to Africa that is prohibited from being used on any sort of birth control other than the teaching of abstinence, effectively killing millions of people.
Whether you agree with Harris or not, and these are murky waters, this is a well reasoned book that covers a lot of ground and raises some questions that we have been collectively sweeping under the rug. Where does our moral imperative begin and end when it comes to ideologies that encroach upon the rights of others? Perhaps we should all be required to convert to Jainism (Jains devoutly avoid harming any living creature) and we could live happily ever after.
If you really want to fire up your next book club meeting, look no further, this is the book for you.
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